It Was Bound to Happen: Churches Canceling Services for Halloween

Halloween is on Sunday this year and unsurprisingly some churches are canceling their evening services so that the kids and their families can participate in the door to door beggery.

Driving into Oak Ridge the other day I saw a Church sign (on a Church of God, thankfully – and not a Baptist Church): ‘Join us Sunday Evening for Trunk and Treat’. So I called. ‘Yes, our regular services are not being held so we can devote our attention to our special activity’ said the friendly woman on the other end.

What about that… It was bound to happen. Churches are already canceling services for Christmas and Super Bowl Sunday, so why not cancel worship so you can toss candy to kids who- in America- are already overweight and have poor dental hygiene as it is. Nothing says the love of God like abandoning worship for candy.

I suppose the rationale is that if you give kids candy you’re showing them how much God loves them and wants them to be fat and have rotten teeth.

9 thoughts on “It Was Bound to Happen: Churches Canceling Services for Halloween”

After all we would not want people to spend time with their neighbors and friends on a Sunday evening. That would be totally counter to the Great Commission. Much better that they spend all of their time at church with other Christians so they aren’t corrupted by the evil of the world.

If it is always more important to worship God than talk to neighbors, why does the second commandment exist? Sunday evening services are good and appropriate, but as Jesus said, “the Sabbath was made for man not man for the sabbath.” If we hold are tradition as more important than people then we have missed the point of being the church.

you shall love the lord your god with all your heart soul mind and strength and your neighbor as yourself.

in that order.

one doesnt really love neighbor at all if one doesn’t love god above all. and do recall, jesus said ‘i did not come to bring peace but a sword’ and then he goes on to talk about dividing people from those to whom they are most loyal- so that their loyalty to god is undivided.

again, only those who love god first can really love their neighbors at all. so while it SOUNDS good – what you are really suggesting is that people are more important than god. hardly true at all. not true in the least.

No I am not suggesting people are more important than God. But your version seems to leave no room for people. If we always should be loving God more than people, if we should always be worshiping God, in church, then how to we decide when to leave church. Why not just stay in church all the time 365 days, 24 hours. If that was the case, why didn’t Jesus just stay in the temple and worship. Or if not him, why didn’t the apostles just stay in the temple worshiping.

At some point, worship of God means we have to leave the temple and spend time with people.

your argument is simply a reductio ad absurdum. lets face it- people have mon-sat to hob nob with people and show them god’s love. and even sunday. so telling them ‘use the only hours set aside for worship’ to hob nob is nothing but the making of excuses for them to do something besides worship god.

oh- and i have to reject that viewpoint. if people want to abandon worship, so what. personally i dont care. what i care about is the message that churches send when they cancel worship for such frivolous stupidity as mindless ‘holidays’. i LOATHE the debasement of god.